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Kitchen pantry organization project for a small space

This weekend I did some organization in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, we suffered a major basement flood (4 feet of water) and are still dealing with the “aftermath”. Before the flood, we kept an extra shelf of pantry items downstairs in the basement because we don’t actually have a dedicated pantry in the kitchen.

Although most of the food had to be tossed after the flood, we did salvage the items on the upper pantry shelves. Next step was to move all of the food upstairs into the kitchen, while we cleaned the basement; but of course, we had no space in the kitchen cabinets. So, this weekend I picked up a couple of shelves that were on sale at Target. I liked them because they were space saving and easy to assemble. Well, sort of. The smaller shelf was easy to assemble – the large shelf was a bit tricky.

I re-purposed some containers that I already had to store some of the food, so my next step will be to 1) find some alternative containers; 2) label the containers and 3) decide if I want to keep this organizational system as a permanent solution, or eventually return my overflow pantry to the basement. I do like having everything in one place, but I don’t like furniture lined up on walls, and of course, I don’t like clutter. I’m guessing that once I get the right containers, I will be ok with it, but we’ll see…

The picture shows my assembled shelves. The tall shelf has 4 shelves, and each shelf has: tomato sauces; pasta; canned goods and condiments (in stacked containers); and then misc on the bottom shelf. You could also use the top shelf as shelf #5, but I prefer the uncluttered look for a room that I will be spending a lot of time in.

The smaller shelf actually contains items that were transfered from a small cart we had in the kitchen. Once I got started my assembly project, it meant moving some things around, so I decided the cart needed to go. Now the kitchen actually feels bigger!

About Jacquie

Jacquie Ross is a professional organizer, a Certified Life and Family Coach and award winning owner of CastAway the Clutter! A busy person's expert, Jacquie works with professionals, seniors, empty nesters and families to develop strategies to reach their goals, identify any road blocks, and find more meaning in their lives. Learn more about Jacquie’s life coaching and parent/youth/family coaching here at the CastAway the Clutter Blog, and for organizing services, visit CastAway the Clutter! Jacquie can also be found on Facebook

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For the width, measure what you’ll put in there. Will you place clheots in plastic containers? Will you store toilet paper bundles and tissue boxes? Cases of Mac Cheese? Take this into consideration for the height or space between the shelves too. The standard dimensions of cabinet shelving was mainly put in place to help the industry, not necessarily the needs of each. For the shelf depth, I wouldn’t go more than 16 . For the material of the shelves, once again, what are you storing? Will it possibly leak like syrup and mess the stuff underneath? Did you consider installing drawers that could occupy the whole depth of the closet? Would you like to hang a broom or vacuum hose? Storage space are fun to plan because they can be a useful personalized project.